Here are some quick tip(s) for copying a ton of files between unixy machines really fast. You’re probably thinking “why not use rsync?”…..well rsync can be miserably slow if your source or destination cpu is underpowered. You can always do a rsync after these commands to make 100% certain that everything checks out, but try using one of these methods for the initial copy:

You’ll be prompted for the remote servers password or you can use the private key of the remote server using the -i switch in the ssh command. This has the side benefit of preserving permissions. An alternate version of this command can also be used to locally move folder structures across mount points while preserving permissions:

This is kinda cool. It only works if you have access to “Back to My Mac” service and you have it turned on in the remote mac’s preferences (under iCloud preferences). If you ever need to find out the FQDN (Fully Qualified Domain Name) of your remote mac and connect to it via ssh or something like it you can use the following command in the terminal:

This has been driving me mad ever since I started using Parallels Desktop for Mac. The damn promo screen that keeps popping up to sell me some crapware. Well here is a quick defaults command to turn it off